FORMER Republic of Ireland star Ronnie Whelan fears for his country's future in international football.

He warns that a new manager will have to start a painstaking trawl to strengthen a thinning squad.

His ex-Liverpool team-mate and ECHO columnist John Aldridge is the bookmakers' second favourite, behind Martin O'Neill, to succeed Brian Kerr.

John Delaney, Football Association of Ireland chief executive, insists the team left behind by Kerr is a talented one, despite Roy Keane, Kenny Cunningham and Stephen Carr all announcing their retirement from international football in the past week.

But Whelan feels there is a lack of quality that can only hinder progression when the FAI announce Kerr's successor.

"They made a rod for their own back by putting Brian in there in the first place," said Whelan, who won 53 caps between 1981 and 1995.

"It has not worked out and they have got to go looking again three years down the line, but they have to get it right this time otherwise we will be slipping further down the rankings.

"It's going to be difficult enough as it is qualifying for the European Championships. The last thing they want is to keep going down and never qualifying for anything again.

"At the moment we have four or five very good players in the likes of Shay Given, Damien Duff and Robbie Keane, but there is not much beyond them. The rest of the squad is much of a muchness.

"It means we will probably have to go down the route Jack Charlton did when he was in charge and find players of Irish descent, like Ray Houghton, John Aldridge, Andy Townsend.

"We will have to trawl places to try and find them. It's legal, so why not do it? If you do it and they are good enough, so be it.

"I know when Jack brought in the likes of Ray, John and Andy, people said they were not Irish, but they still performed when they played for Ireland.

"We need to do something. If you look at Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the last few years, they have not found players and have struggled. It's happening to us at this moment in time, which is sad to see."

Delaney, though, has rubbished claims a new manager will be working with a squad on the decline, insisting the future is bright.

"There is a lot of interest out there in this job, which is a high-profile one," said Delaney.

"There has been a lot of talk about the lack of talent. But we have players of the ability of Shay Given, Richard Dunne, Damien Duff, Robbie Keane, Steve Finnan and John O'Shea.

"They are all good players, players who play at the top level in the Premiership. It is a good side."

Whelan's former Anfield and Republic team-mate Mark Lawrenson has also highlighted the problems facing the Republic.

He said: "The biggest worry is the lack of players coming through. We saw that when Brian tried to change the game against Switzerland last week, a match we needed to win.

"But all he could do was bring on Steven Reid, who is not playing much for Blackburn, Stephen Elliott, who is cutting his teeth in the Premier League, and Gary Doherty, who has struggled to get into the Norwich team this season.

"Now we have players retiring, with Roy and Kenny understandable, but not Stephen Carr.

"Would he have retired from international football if they had qualified for the World Cup. Would he heck?

"Whatever his decision, with those three players retiring, it is worrying there are no obvious replacements."